


Wow, That's Combustible?

by coldmilkchoices



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, Post-Episode: s03e14-15 The Boiling Rock, Western Air Temple, board games are SERIOUS BUSINESS OKAY, fire flakes are yummy, hakoda loves his kids so much, he wont stop talking about how much he loves them, minor accidents in bending, oops! everythings on fire!, what's that on the horizon? its hope for the future!, zuko please dont eat that off the floor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-04-20 18:41:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21997636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coldmilkchoices/pseuds/coldmilkchoices
Summary: Hakoda spots the mischievous look on Toph's face and has just enough time to say “Oh no,” to Chit Sang before everything goes up in flames.
Relationships: Hakoda & Katara (Avatar), Hakoda & Sokka (Avatar)
Comments: 26
Kudos: 577





	Wow, That's Combustible?

**Author's Note:**

> Hakoda DESPERATELY needs to let you know how much he loves his kids and that they're the coolest.

It’s been a peaceful day in the Western Air Temple, and Hakoda enjoys the feeling of not being on edge for the first time since the Day of Black Sun. He’s talking quietly about nothing important with Chit Sang as the younger members of their group wind down before dinner. 

Teo, Haru, and The Duke aren’t yet back from another of their explorations through the temple, but Hakoda has heard their excited whoops drifting through the temple intermittently throughout the past handful of hours, and he isn’t worried. 

Katara is making dinner, something that smells amazing, while Zuko and Aang talk quietly as the former polishes his swords and the latter twists together bits of shed bison hair. Suki and Toph are playing some sort of game on the ground involving little wooden chips and lines Toph bent into the ground to simulate a board, and the both of them are taking it much more seriously than intended. Aang has been called in to referee several times as one or the other makes accusations of cheating or breaking rules. As he watches, Toph calls a timeout to get up for a drink of water and Suki leans over their makeshift board intently.

“I can still see you, don’t be getting up to any funny business!” Toph called back towards her partner. Suki glared in Toph’s direction and then pointedly plants both of her hands on the rock beside her knees and returns to scrutinizing the board. Sokka roots around in the saddlebags, searching for a spice Katara had asked him for, with growing mutterings about their labeling system. Pulling out a small box of something and peeking it open, his brow furrows in confusion.  
  
“Hey Katara, what’s this?” He yells over his shoulder. Katara turns away from her pots to squint over at him.

“I don’t know, bring it over here and let me see,” she calls back. Toph is coming back to the board, and pauses above it to take a sip of her water cup. As it comes down away from her face, Hakoda spots the mischievous look on her face and has just enough time to say “Oh no” to Chit Sang before everything goes up in flames.

As Sokka is passing Zuko and Aang, Toph shifts a foot _ just so _, and a tiny section of stone rises in front of Sokka’s toe, causing him to stumble forwards. The top of the little box he’s holding comes off as Sokka falls, and Suki, sitting on his opposite side, makes an impossible attempt to catch it as a cloud of little specks flies right into Aang and Zuko’s faces.

“_Ow _” manages Sokka from the ground, and Aang coughs a couple times.

“_Eugh,_ I think I _ inhaled _ some of that.” he complains. Before anything else can be done, Zuko’s face creases and he sneezes. And sneezes again, but this time a fountain of sparks shoot out, and the cloth he’d been polishing his swords with begins to smolder. Before anyone can react, Zuko sneezes another round of sparks just as Aang looses a monumental sneeze that sends him five feet in the air and turns the sparks into a quick, _ hot _ burst of flames that sends Toph scrambling away as the loose bison fur scattered across the floor, the cloth Zuko is holding, and the top of Sokka’s wolftail are set alight in one go. Sokka shrieks and Zuko belatedly drops the burning cloth… directly onto his pants, which begin to catch as well. In the moments the fire blooms, Suki rips a fan from her belt, snaps it open, and neatly slices the smoldering tips of Sokka’s hair off in a powerful sweeping motion.

Before any more damage can be done, Katara sends a wave of water crashing down onto the three boys, leaving them drenched and blinking. 

A perfect moment of stillness follows.

“MY HAIR!” Sokka shrieks catapulting upright to feel the back of his head. Zuko sneezes a fourth time.

“_Sokka _” Katara begins, but Toph slides to the ground cackling, which sets Aang and then Sokka off as well as Suki, and a moment later Katara begins a losing battle against giggles. Zuko goes bright red, but when Aang grabs at his shoulder for support it startles a laugh out of him as well. Hakoda finds himself grinning as Chit Sang bursts into booming peals of laughter beside him.

“Is everyone alright?” Hakoda asks, choking down a laugh of his own, even though it looks like nobody is injured.

Zuko’s laughter stutters as his head comes around to stare at Hakoda like a startled squirrel-deer, as if he had forgotten Hakoda was there. Hakoda tries not to let surprise, uncertainty, or the inklings of dread curdling in his gut at the reaction show on his face, but luckily Toph rolls around the floor to clutch at Sokka’s shoulder.

“Did _ Sparky _ just sneeze _ sparks_?” she wheezes, which breaks the uncomfortable tension as Zuko’s face goes red. Katara flops down next to Zuko, shaking with laughter, and Zuko slides back into laughter that’s quieter than the others, but relaxes.

Hakoda lets himself join the laughter, and looks over the six children and the bright smiles covering their faces. As he looks, he is suddenly filled with an intense joy. These children, who have known pain and suffering for so long on a scale none of them should have had to bear, finally all look as happy as they rightfully should. Aang, who usually has enough brightness to rival the moon, looks like he’s about to outshine all the celestial bodies combined. Suki’s wide grin holds not even a sliver of the viciousness Hakoda has come to expect from her in it, and Toph’s smile is devoid of any dry humor for the first time he’s ever seen. Zuko is cautiously, quietly happy, a look that expands slowly across his face underneath his sopping wet hair that almost hurts to look at, and his children… Katara and Sokka look the happiest Hakoda has seen them since before Kya died and he had to leave with the Southern fleet.

Hakoda suddenly wishes that he had a way to record this perfect moment, but he settles on trying to engrave it as perfectly as he can into his memory. Hakoda watches Katara throw her head back and Sokka’s eyes squint just like their mother’s used to, and he feels his happiness is as bright as the fireball that started this. He almost wishes that these children could live in this moment forever, but instead hopes that they will have more moments like it once the war is over. Spirits know they deserve it.

As the laughter quiets and tears of mirth are wiped, the little camp in the temple slowly returns to normal. Suki helps Sokka up, who catches his breath in preparation to properly lament his hair while Aang sends a little whirlwind across the floor to pick up the surviving spice flakes and bison fur. He then looks down at his soaked sleeve, and up at Sokka and Zuko consideringly. He blasts the three of them with air, leaving them dry with comically wide eyes. Sokka’s abused wolftail poofs out, and Zuko’s hair sticks out in every direction. Katara laughs at the expressions on their faces, and then pushes herself up with Zuko’s shoulder before offering a hand down to him. Zuko accepts, a smile still playing across his face as he attempts to flatten his hair down.

Beside Hakoda, Chit Sang levers himself up.

“What a show!” he chuckles, before turning towards the entrance. “I’m off to find the other young ones. Don’t let your beads get toasted while I’m gone!” Hakoda offers a wave and half a grin in response, before getting up himself to wander over to Katara’s stew pot.

Toph drums her heels smugly along the ground, and Sokka finally begins to properly bemoan the treatment of his hair. Suki allows him to run on for a few moments, before rolling her eyes and poking him in the shoulder.

“It looks _ fine_, Sokka.” she assures him. He stalls, before running a slightly mollified hand over his wolftail.

“Are you _ sure_?” he says, pouting slightly.

“Would I lie to you?” Suki replies, raising an eyebrow.

“...No” he concedes wisely, and Suki grins.

“I can’t see a difference, don’t worry,” says Toph.

“Thanks, To- Hey!”

“It’s barely a half inch off anyways, no one will ever know,” Suki says, and ignores the ensuing squawk. “What was in the box, anyways?”

Zuko leans down to pick a few flakes up from the neat little pile Aang had created.

“Oh, they’re fire flakes!” He says. “They’re spicy, and they look cool when they catch fire.” He lights the flakes in his hands, and they flare brightly before shriveling and burning out. Zuko then pops them into his mouth and chews on them. “They’re really popular in the Fire Nation, and at a lot of festivals there are food carts selling bigger versions of them all over the place.”

Aang lights up. “Oh, Kuzon used to love those! We got Gyatso good with some of the really spicy ones, and his eyes didn’t stop watering for a good ten minutes!” Hakoda pauses next to the stew pot, smiling.

“Azula and I used to see who could eat the spiciest one when we were little, and I remember one time I shoved a whole handful of the third-hottest kind we had in my mouth at once. I think that was one of the hardest times I’ve ever seen her lau-” Zuko abruptly cuts himself off, face darkening with a wash of emotions. There’s a moment of silence, in which Hakoda thinks back to his meeting with the ruthless princess at the Boiling Rock, finding it hard to think of her genuinely laughing, although he supposes it might look a little like Zuko’s had.

“I think dinner’s ready!” Katara says a little too loudly after an awkward few beats have passed. Hakoda leans over the pot and palms a spoon.

“This smells really good, Katara,” he says, smiling at her.

She beams. “Thanks, Da- Don’t you dare!” she catches on at the last minute, too late to stop him from dipping his spoon right into the pot and darting back out of range. “_ Dad _!” she protests, and he shoves the spoon in his mouth immediately burning his mouth. He swallows it on reflex and feels a burning coal work its way down his throat.

“Tui and La, that’s hot!” he curses, coughing. Katara rolls her eyes, and the others burst into laughter before going to claim their own bowls.

Sokka offers him a cup of water, which he accepts, and then The Duke, Teo, Haru, and Chit Sang come around the corner.

“Just in time!” Teo says, picking up speed to reach dinner faster. The Duke and Haru match his pace, talking excitedly about something they’d found in the temple.

As Hakoda serves himself and this time waits for the stew to cool, Suki pauses over the game she and Toph had been playing, narrowing her eyes.

“Toph you little cheat!” she yells, sliding her bowl onto the floor and turning menacingly towards her prey. Toph freezes, spoon halfway to her mouth, distressed at the realization that she’s been found out much earlier than anticipated and now her dinner is in danger.

As Hakoda watches Suki chase Toph around the room, and then Aang attempt to insert himself as mediator, he eats stew that is delicious even though he can only half taste it. Looking around at the motley crew from different nations sharing a meal and jabbering away together, he feels a different kind of hope for the future than he did on the Day of Black Sun.

Instead of feeling ferociously anticipatory of the destruction of a great evil, he’s hopeful for a bright, peaceful future waiting at the end of this war, that his children will help to create.

He can’t wait to see what they do next.

**Author's Note:**

> Hakoda, sobbing: how do I make sure you look this happy forever or at least can someone invent a camera for me
> 
> This was SUPPOSED to just be a few hundred words of accidental sparky sneezes but Hakoda insisted he had to talk about how wonderful his kids were and then the future and suddenly I was hours deep into this.


End file.
